Monday, May 16, 2011

Buyers Beware: Dragonfire Laser Crafts

Typically I don't like to post these types of threads, but I have reached a point with a company that I feel I need to take my complaints to blog-o-sphere in an effort to warn others. The company in question is Dragonfire Laser Crafts out of Indiana. They do a wide range of laser engraved products including laser engraved tokens.

On Feb 19th, I placed an order with them for 60 engraved wooden tokens for Invasion Kenosha III. Along with the purchase, I asked if I they could use the image from the website. On Feb 22, I heard back from James Murphy stating that they could not use the image online and if I could provide another image that was in a line form. The same day, I responded with an B&W image and asked if this image was still to complex. Having not received a response, I created a simple image and emailed it to Mr. Murphy on Feb 25th.

On March 23rd, I had not heard anything, so I wrote James asking for a status update. After 6 days, I still had not heard anything, so I attempted to use the other email listed on their site. At the same time, I began look for phone numbers to call. The ones I found listed were all disconnected. At this point, I opened a complaint with Paypal.

On March 31st, I heard back from James. He stated in his email that they did not like the quality of the images and what I wanted to do. Upon review, the images were fine in my opinion and I asked for them to be used. On 4/5, I heard back from James that it wouldn't be a problem. That was the last time I have heard from Dragonfire Laser Crafts. Since that time, numerous emails by me have been ignored and I have failed to find a working phone number for the company. As of last week, I have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau in an effort to resolve this problem and to receive a refund. Note: I failed to renew the complaint with Paypal in time, so I burned myself in that regard.




I don't have an issue with stuff getting delayed, I placed the order almost six months from Invasion. My problem is that Dragonfire Laser Crafts has continually failed to keep me updated on the status of my order and has only responded when I have escalated my concerns to a 3rd party. Why they would think this is an acceptable business practice is beyond me, but it has forced me to look elsewhere to find a replacement keep sake for Invasion.

If anyone has any suggestions on another company that does affordable custom tokens or similar and is very dependable, please let me know.

Update: It would appear that I am not the only person having problems recently with Dragonfire Laser Crafts. Check out a couple of recent complaints filed on Amazon.

7 comments:

  1. Go Litkoaero. I've used them heaps of times and never had a problem with them at all.
    Their cutting is top quality and they do a huge variety of materials (the overwatch token in this pic is theirs).

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  2. I keep hearing that they're out of business, which might explain the delays and failed shipments.

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  3. @Simon - Considering that I spoke with them and when pressured by a PayPal complaint, they provided sample tokens, I cannot excuse what they did. Since my original post, I have also filed a complaint with the BBB and they confirmed that they were unable to contact them.

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  4. Hey Equinox, I came across this blog post while researching Dragonfire, because I run a similar business. If you ever need more laser-cut tokens, maybe I can help you out - I'm Lyris Laser Studio, at www.lyrisstudios.com/laser.

    I'm sorry to hear your experience with Dragonfire was disappointing. Tokens like the image above shouldn't be hard to do at all.

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  5. Soon after Mr Murphy got a hold of the company customer service vanished.

    The owners have other full-time jobs, and hobbies that make their ownership of this side business back burner. This is unfortunate.

    The Murphy's tried to buy this company to keep it going when the owner chose to get out of the convention / cyclical demand business.
    They just did not do what it required to keep it going.

    I know of a few people who have attempted to contact them to try to take the gear off their hands with no response.

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  6. Go to www.dwarvenwoodworking.com find the page laser etched projects and then go to the link for Facebook they are good and do custom products.they might charge a setup fee for the image if it needs to be changed but they are good and cheaper then most I have seen.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Go to www.dwarvenwoodworking.com find the page laser etched projects and then go to the link for Facebook they are good and do custom products.they might charge a setup fee for the image if it needs to be changed but they are good and cheaper then most I have seen.

    ReplyDelete